Stateline New South Wales

From The Bearpit

QUENTIN DEMPSTER: Now a few highlights from the bear pit. Let's start with a fine example of what a pain Premier Carr can be to his opponents. The Premier just loves to mock the coalition and he seems prepared use almost anything as a vehicle for his gags. This week he even used a security scare in the house to give himself and his mates a laugh, and to enrage and outrage the opposition.

PREMIER CARR: The sweep by police dogs that just went through the chamber, despite the most comprehensive police search, no opposition policy has been found. Not even a scrap of policy.

ANDREW TINK, OPPOSITION: In relation to what the Premier just said, we either take security in the building seriously or we don't. If it is his security that is a concern then I suggest he should take it seriously

PREMIER CARR: Mr Speaker, I take security very seriously, and I'm concerned about the security of the member of Cronulla, the member for the Hills, the member for Baulkham Hills and the honourable John Ryan MLC, all threatened at their pre?selection by this shocking scourge of ??

MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT: Answer the question you clown.

JOHN BROGDEN: If the Premier thinks it's a joke, then it displays his callous nature more than anything else. We want an answer, Bob, not the clownshow.

QUENTIN DEMPSTER: And then there was Morris Iemma. Like all ministers, he loves having an announcement of something new and exciting. In this case, it was a claimed innovation in the handling of patients. The government's decide it would be a good idea if the seriously ill were sent to appropriate hospitals for treatment, rather than turning up at the local hospital.

MORRIS IEMMA, HEALTH MINISTER: It is about getting patients to the right hospital at the right time so they can get the right treatment and doing so on the basis of the patient's condition. It is in response to criticisms of the current system. This is about getting patients to the right place.

QUENTIN DEMPSTER: But just how new is this? Not much it seems, as they found out when the minister invited the media to talk to an ambulance spokesman. Some wind left the ministerial sail with this admission.

AMBULANCE SPOKESMAN: What it's going to do is deliver the right patient to the right hospital the first time, more often than not.

FEMALE REPORTER: Doesn't this already happen?

AMBULANCE SPOKESMAN: Informally, yes, it does happen. Informally it does. Ambulance officers do transport patients past the closest hospital to formalise the system.

MALE REPORTER: How long have you been doing that, going past the closest one?

AMBULANCE SPOKESMAN: Well, we have been doing it for ten years with trauma.

CRAIG KNOWLES: Last night I participated in a random breath testing exercise on the M5 near the junction of the King Georges Road. I recorded a blood alcohol limit of 0.06. A lower range reading.

QUENTIN DEMPSTER: Back in the bear pit, the Liberals Barry O'Farrell tried to fill in some of the Friday night gaps.

BARRY O'FARRELL, OPPOSITION: Do you stand by your Saturday public statement that you told police that you "had somewhere in the order of three glasses of wine" between 7 and 9 pm on Friday night, even though three hours later you recorded a mid?range blood alcohol reading of 0.085?

CRAIG KNOWLES: Mr Speaker, as I said on Saturday, I acknowledge my mistake, my behaviour was wrong. My behaviour was wrong. I accept the consequences of my actions and they will be determined by the court.